Gigamo

You'll see this logo on particular MO products. It means the product is part of the 1 Gigabyte (GB) and higher capacity MO drives, with a 3.5" form factor. Fujitsu developed the drive, while Sony developed the media.

Giga (GigaByte) + MO (Magneto-Optical) = Gigamo

Magneto-Optical Technology

Basically put, a laser beam (tuned at around 650nm) is projected onto the media disk (made mostly of polycarbonate), where the beam heats a particular layer on the disk to Curie Point (the temperature at which a magnetic substance loses its coercive force, which is 200° C), thereby enabling the magnet within the drive itself to easily contour the polarization of the disk. Once this is done, the drive can quickly switch the polarization of the magnet, creating a data mark on the disk. When reading a disc, the laser beam is polarized and the reflected light is interpreted into data.

Durable Drives And Rugged Media

One of the reasons why the 2300U2 costs more than other removable storage devices, is because of the quality of the drive itself and the media which is used with it. The 2300U2 drive itself weighs in at just under 1.5lbs (630g).

Faster Does Not Mean Better

If you've followed some of my storage-related reviews, you'll notice I mention that fast transfer speeds do not guarantee higher quality. This is the same case with the Fujitsu 2300U2. Magneto-Optical technology is not the fastest data transfer system on the block. However, you're getting one of the most reliable forms of data storage available today. I can say from experience, I've had no less than 6 hard drives fail in the last 4 years. And it appears as if hard drive failure is on the rise due to more units being manufactured in the same amount of time. This is inevitable, and is not necessarily reflective of the quality of the company. It just means the more hard drives being produced, the more chances you have of receiving a faulty drive.

What can we do about it?

My solution is having proprietary storage systems. What I mean by this is having different forms of storage. One form could a 3.5" hard drive. Another form would be having files burned on a CD/DVD. Another form would be having a Magnetic Optical storage system in place. The more forms of data storage, the better. Of course, don't get yourself overwhelmed and in the next section, we'll talk about Storageflow.